One year later, omnibus hearing to be held for murder suspect
Just over a year later, an omnibus hearing will be held for Jason Nisbit, the 40 year old Faribault man accused of First Degree Murder in the death of 26 year old Chelsea Martinez of Ohio. Rice County Attorney John Fossum explains that “omnibus” means all encompassing and the hearing, “it’s the opportunity to challenge the admissibility of evidence, to say that evidence was obtained unconstitutionally, it’s the opportunity to say, hey, I’ve looked at the evidence and there isn’t probable cause to hold this person over for trial”. Fossum added that it has taken this long to get to this point due to some unusual motions by the defense attorney. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said, “it’s a very complex case, a lot of evidence, a lot of hard work done by the Deputies
and the officers that assisted”. More layers were added to the case with the victim from out of state, social media and the internet. In a case such as this, they must show premeditation. He said, “it’s just a matter of collecting evidence to show this was a planned event”. According to the criminal complaint, Martinez met Nisbit online, drove up from Ohio and met him at a local motel on July 31st, 2015 to, allegedly, discuss suicide. The two arranged to meet again the next morning at Shager Park. Martinez, a troubled mother of 3, was reported missing July 30th by family members who alerted police to her online history. On August 3rd, a Sheriff’s Deputy discovered Martinez’s car in Shager Park which eventually led them to Nisbit who led police to her body and reportedly told police how he did it. Nisbit has been in the Rice County jail on a million dollar bond since August 10th, 2015. His hearing is set for August 16th.
Butler would work to ban the whistle and trim Council spending
As a downtown business owner and, recently, a topic of Northfield’s Noise ordinance, Norman Butler is running for Council in Ward 3. In an email he stated that a priority for him is reducing environmental pollution and improving livability by silencing the train whistle. He added that Council needs better decision making. He’s experienced success and failure in business and while enjoying the successes, he’s learned more from the failures, namely how easy it is to spend other people’s money and easier still to watch it happen. For example, he added, listen to the City Council’s deliberations on renewing the NDDC’s funding. Butler said it’s a classic example of sentiment overwhelming reason, emotion outvoting logic, and subjectivity trumping objectivity. The Council is dysfunctional because it has allowed these easy tendencies to undermine the decision making process – once again, making it easy to spend other people’s money. Butler says he will change that – or fail in the attempt.
The Primary is tomorrow. All Northfield candidate interviews are posted on the front page of our website kymn.net. Polls open tomorrow morning at 7 o’clock and will close at 8pm. In this Primary, there are only 2 local races. Those are for Wards 2 and 3. However, there are regional races including Congressional District 2, the seat being vacated by GOP Representative John Kline. For polling locations go to your City’s website.
Temporary healthcare dwellings on temporary hold as Northfield Council votes to Opt Out for now
The Northfield City Council chose to “Opt Out” of Governor Dayton’s Temporary Health Care Dwelling legislation. The Planning Commission went over the details and recommending opting out for now so that, at a later date, details of what could be allowed would be tailored to fit Northfield. Community Development Director Chris Heineman said the way the legislation is written currently, means that a temporary healthcare dwelling, “in essence could be in the front yard, it could be made applicable to recreational vehicles…. and that has some other problems with the land development code”. The Commission will visit the idea again in the Fall. Mayor Graham said they want to look into this more thoroughly as it has many impacts to the City. This was the First Reading of the Ordinance to Opt Out. It will be on Council August 16th agenda for a 2nd reading and then become law.
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